


Cassandra

by actualtimelady



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Divorce, Dread, F/F, Fluff, Grief, Homophobia, Hope, Kisses, Longing, Oral, trans!vivienne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 17:22:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6248803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualtimelady/pseuds/actualtimelady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Vivienne finds that Cassandra has left the motel without telling her, she anxiously tries to reach Cassandra at her home in New York, reliving the events of the last month as Vivienne waits for her to answer. Based on the movie Carol.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cassandra

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RowynSN](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RowynSN/gifts).



> Full disclosure, I have not seen Carol. I did my best to get a hold of it, but I couldn’t find anywhere it would be out until after the deadline, and I don’t have time to read the book in time either. But! I did my best to capture what I could by going to the wikipedia and the TV Tropes page, so I hope this doesn’t disappoint! (That being said, it looks super cute and a little sad --I’ll be watching at my first opportunity!) There is some deviation from the movie and train of events, but I tried to keep everything as orderly as I could, using what I know of the plot as my framing.
> 
> From what I know of the movie, it’s entirely possible that Vivienne is more of a Carol than a Therese (and the opposite is likely true of Cassandra) but when going through your blog I couldn’t help but notice your love of Vivienne and I wanted to make sure her story was put more into focus than Cassandra’s. I hope this’s okay!

Vivienne’s heart pounded in her chest as she began to dial the number for Cassandra’s house in New York. Cassandra had left without a word, just after… Maker, just after Tethras had admitted to being a spy for her husband. After he admitted to having already sent the damning information on its way. After it was too late to stop the damage that would be done to Cassandra’s reputation. Not to mention her little girl…

Why had she left without telling Vivienne anything? Anything at all? A shiver ran through her, but whether it was from anxiety or the chill January air, Vivienne could not be sure.

BRRRP-BRRRRRRRP

_Gloves in a shop and long looks. A smile that could warm a cold winter’s day, laughter that could bring the color back to a grey sky, all shared with Vivienne for witty remarks and her help. The meeting had been so brief, but had touched on so much of what Vivienne had never realised she had really wanted, had never even given a second thought. Sharp cheekbones and a jawline set to kill matched with eyes that saw everything but softened at kind words had set into Vivienne’s mind to haunt every day moments. Even more striking was a scar down her left cheek, an anomaly most women of her stature would try to hide, out on display. The look was intense and captivating, such a striking contrast from the humdrum of Vivienne’s everyday that her image stuck, popping up at ever turn. It was just the beginning._

BRRRP-BRRRRRRRP

_Lunch and a thank you. It was more than Vivienne had expected to get out of Cassandra, more than the chance short meetings she could only dream about if Cassandra visited the shop again. Laughter and smiles across a table, wrapped tightly with heartfelt compliments and sweet wine. A kinship, a friendship, a desire for something Vivienne never thought she would be able to hold close to her in the night._

BRRRP-BRRRRRRRP

_The day had gone by in a blur of shopping and stolen glances, preparations for seasonal celebration of shared community and religion. Vivienne had taken photos --beautiful, wonderful portraits of a beautiful, wonderful woman in her element. Memories that she would regret losing if she didn’t have the photographs to look upon in the future. They talked about them, these pictures, and took a few more full of smiles and, Vivienne’s favorite, a picture of her with her head thrown back in glee, the happiest she had seen Cassandra since their initial meeting, all hesitation and tension missing from her shoulders. They had sat close, touching, close, so close when the door had opened and separated them. A man. Her husband?_

_There was a fight. Accusations from the newcomer Cassandra had trouble denying. A history Vivienne had not been aware of and divorce proceedings that had just turned from bad to much, much worse. In spite of it all, Vivienne had wished for two things as she took the train home. She wished for her friend’s happiness, and that perhaps, one day, she might share in it._

BRRRP-BRRRRRRRP

_It had been a couple of days before Cassandra had called again. Vivienne hadn’t expected to hear from her, hadn’t expected that Cassandra would really have a choice. Hurting though she was, Vivienne had already begun to harden herself with the resignation that they would never get to take that chance, never get to leap headfirst into… what? What could there have been for them? Nothing, Vivienne had told herself harshly, and turned her mind to other things._

_And then she called, and all the work she had done was smashed to bits. Of course, Cassandra could come over. Maker, this infatuation would have to stop or it would be the ruin of her. Embarrassment had flared at the size of Vivienne’s small apartment, all that her job would allowe her, but Cassandra hardly seemed to notice. And then… A gift. A camera. A nicer camera than Vivienne had been allowed to use in the College of Photographers, and she had been no amateur when she was there. As an apology, Cassandra had said on the phone. For having to send Vivienne off early because… because of her husband. For not getting her a cab. For cutting off their night._

_For not mentioning she had a husband to begin with._

BRRRP-BRRRRRRRP

_A New Year’s trip out west. Time to get away, time to escape, time for the two of them. Vivienne would have given everything, anything, to ease the tension in Cassandra’s shoulders as she drove, to make her laugh and chatter like she had that night, that wonderful night when everything had seemed so perfect. Vivienne could still recall the warmth where their shoulders had rested together while they had drunk wine, content and at peace with one another’s very presence. What were they doing? What were they? What did Vivenne want from this, and more importantly was Cassandra even interested?_

_And as Cassandra looked over with a tired, worn-to-the-bone smile and an apology for her distractedness so far on the trip, the flutter in Vivienne’s heart had told her everything that she didn’t want to know, hadn’t wanted to admit but had no choice now. She had fallen, hard and fast, for the woman in the car with her. What was better: they already had the talk. The one that told Cassandra about the scars and the medication, the process explained in the early evening under wine that had made Vivienne more open, more willing to share what normally would have been held close for fear of anger, disgust, revulsion. Instead? A moment of connection between them that had blossomed in the quiet of the space that had been left where her secret had vacated._

A sixth ring begins, but is interrupted: “Hello?” Her voice. Her voice: that bold voice that could bring Vivienne to her knees.

_It was a kiss. Just a kiss, just lightly, just at midnight. It was soft, asking, and_ oh yes _would be the answer. It was more than Vivienne could have hoped for, more than she could have ever dreamed could have been granted to her._

“Cassandra?”

_The kisses hadn’t stopped there. Asking and answers, slowly at first. Emboldened by Vivienne’s ascent Cassandra had pressed close, hip to hip as fingers fretted slowly over buttons, shirt parting slowly as Vivienne was unwrapped and unraveled, lips to every inch of bare skin in thanks and no --Vivienne should be doing the thanking but (_ Oh Sweet Maker! _) she was finding that protest may have been beyond her at this point. She’d have her turn, she knew, to return the favor but allowed herself to fall into the rhythms and motions led by the woman who had managed to capture her so completely._

_Lips and tongue and teeth teasing and tantalizing slowly ever slowly moving across her skin in whorls and patterns as each button popped delicately out of place by Cassandra’s hand: her neck, her collarbone, her sternum, her breast --oh, her breast! Vivienne had wanted the thin fabric still between them removed now, but her teasing touch reached the waist of her trousers and pulled her shirt from its confines, and then slipped from her shoulders to flutter to the floor, discarded._

_They came back together then, and, though still controlled, still hesitant, the process continued. The bra was next, touches and kisses along where the straps had been as the fabric had been peeled away from skin. Belt removed and jeans slipped over hips, and panties with them, and Vivienne was laid bare before her. The process was purposeful, but not without passion. Shivers ran down Vivienne’s spine and raised goosebumps on each exposed inch of skin, bringing her body to life inch by inch._

“Cassandra, it’s me.”

_As Vivienne was guided to the bed with a smile and kisses and touches she protested at Cassandra’s completely covered state but what she got instead was better --oh so much better. The dress that Cassandra had confessed to so adamantly hating came slowly and unceremoniously to the floor, followed by the petticoat. It was done with so much less care than Vivienne would have taken, or that Cassandra had taken with Vivienne, but the reveal had been spectacular. A bubble of laughter rose in her as nylons snagged and Cassandra cursed, but when they were off Cassandra was in her arms, finally, skin to skin, mouth to mouth, and Cassandra’s mouth traveled to nip at her earlobe as Vivienne’s hand travelled south. For all her attempts at control when they had began, Cassandra hesitated as Vivienne took the lead. All of the desire from the time they met poured into each of Vivienne’s touches. But when she returned it --oh, when she returned it there was fire that blazed a trail where their bodies touched._

“Cassandra, _please_.”

_And oh, when she did, when she finally did, time seemed to stretch into infinity and snap into seconds, as, for just one moment, they were the only two on the planet. The only ones who mattered. Pleasure shuddered through Vivienne with what began a night of learning the hills and valleys of this soft body, the taste of her skin and her name._

“Cassandra,” but… not a word.. She heard the the receiver returned abruptly to its cradle, the line going dead in her hand, and it was like a hammer hit her chest. “Cassandra!” Vivienne asked, her voice thickening, her knees giving way as she crushed the receiver to her ear, all, all in vain. 

_They had fallen asleep skin to skin, any initial shyness gone. In that moment of completeness she heard Cassandra’s contented sigh as she stretched against Vivienne and cuddled into her as she drifted to sleep, reveling in these few moments of peace._

**Author's Note:**

> You wanted fluff and angst, and hopefully I did well with that for you!
> 
> I also tried hard to work in your request for trans!Viv and/or trans!Cass, and I thought Trans Viv fit better, since I was sticking to the time Carol was set in (And calling on what I know about the history of gender reassignment surgery, and that though the surgery was done, the gender change was not recognized as with Christine Jorgensen and her ex-fiancee Howard Knox.) So. I intentionally left Cassandra more vague. I have no problem imagining Cass is trans in this story despite history, and I welcome you or anyone else that wants to headcanon her trans in this story to do so as well.


End file.
